Reconstructing Citizenship

Miriam Feldblum is a Senior Research Associate in the Division of Humanities and Social Sciences at the California Institute of Technology.

"Persons interested in modern French politics, as well as those interested in immigration, nationality and citizenship issues, will find this an extremely interesting book." — International Migration Review"Feldblum effectively illuminates how the notions and meaning of citizenship changed during the 1980s and 1990s. By brilliantly integrating political process in her analysis, Feldblum provides a most cogent understanding of French politics of citizenship. A sharp intellectual contribution to the contested terrain of citizenship debates." — Yasemin Soysal, University of Essex"France is a critical case of a number of countries that are trying to fit large scale immigration of ethnically and culturally different peoples into their political and cultural frameworks. The comparative study of migration politics and policies, of citizenship, and of identity is one of the fastest growing areas of social scientific inquiry. This book is spot-on in both respects as it presents considerable material in the form of a case study of the politics of policymaking on citizenship and immigration-integration as well as a case study of the evolution of national conceptions of the meaning of being French, whether one can be a hyphenated Frenchman, and what citizenship and national identity mean in a globalizing but also increasingly fragmented world." — Gary P. Freeman, The University of Texas at Austin"This book is an excellent work in contemporary political history of France. It makes a very valuable contribution to our understanding of the debates over reform of French nationality laws and linking this reform to broader questions of French politics." — James F. Hollifield, Southern Methodist University

• Acknowledgments 1. STUDYING CITIZENDSHIP: A POLITICAL-PROCESS APPROACH IntroductionCitizenship Reform as a Process, Not a ProductCulturalist, Structuralist, Institutionalist, and Political-Process Analyses of CitizenshipFrench Citizenship Reform as a Case StudyResearch Strategy and Plan of the Book 2. THE NEW IMMIGRANTS AND CITIZENSHIP Contemporary Immigration in FranceImmigrants and Citizenship Status 3. POLITICIZING CITIZENSHIP IN FRENCH IMMIGRATION POLITICS The Transformatins of Pluralism in FranceImmigrant Associations and the Right to DifferenceThe Pluralist Debates and the Extreme RightThe Contested National IdentityThe Left, National Identity, and CitizenshipImmigrants, National Identity, and the New CitizenshipNational Identity Debates, Racial Politics, and NativismConclusion: From National Identity to Citizenship 4. RE-ENVISIONING THE CITIZENSHIP: THE DEBATES OVER THE NATIONALITY CODE From National Identity to Nationality CodeThe Voluntarist ArgumentsVoluntarism and the LeftThe Communitarian ArgumentsCommunitarianism and the LeftThe Nativist ArgumentsNativism and the LeftThe Constraints of French IdeologiesConclusion 5. THE REFORM, THE STATE, AND THE POLITICAL PROCESS State Constraints on a ReformThe Four Objectives of the Bureau of NationalityAgendas, Autonomy, and Dissension Within the StateThe Reform and the Political ProcessConclusion 6. RECONSTRUCTING CITIZENSHIP: THE NATIONALITY COMMISSION The Fusion of National Identity and PluralismNational Identity and Concerns About European IntegrationReinforcing National Identity and National IntegrationElective Conception of the Nation and a Voluntarist CitizenshipReaffirming and Resituating the Statist PerspectiveReactions to the Commission's Report 7. WHO'S WEARING THE VEIL? ETHNIC POLITICS AND THE NEW CITIZENSHIP Immigrants to Ethnics: Constraints on Ethnic Citizenship and DifferenceContemporary ChallengesL'Affaire du Foulard: Creating the AffairDefining the DramaManaging the AffairConclusion 8. NATIONALITY REFORM IN THE 1990S Citizenship Reform, Membership Traditions, and the Political ProcessDomestic Political Processes and Changes in Citizenship Appendix A: State Agencies, Political Parties, Social Organizations, and Immigrant Associations at Which Interviews Were Conducted Appendix B: Legislative Propositions to Reform the Nationality Code Notes Bibliography Index